Former South African President Nelson Mandela, who survived 27 years in prison to protest the country's apartheid system, died on Thursday. He was 95 years old, ABC News reported.
"I am profoundly saddened by the passing of Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela was a giant for justice and a down-to-earth human inspiration. Many around the world were greatly influenced by his selfless struggle for human dignity, equality and freedom. He touched our lives in deeply personal ways," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said to reporters in a special conference to reporters just minutes before heading to Paris.
Mandela had a string of health problems in recent years, including repeated hospitalizations with a chronic lung infection. He had been listed in "serious but stable condition" after entering the hospital in June before he returned home to receive continued medical care, ABC News also reported.
Mandela emerged from prison to become South Africa's first black president.
Born in 1918 in a remote village in South Africa, he became an icon for South Africans who stood up against apartheid. Jailed for 27 years, Mandela was later awarded the Nobl Peace Prize for his leadership "in ending apartheid without violence and later became a global statesman who inspired millions of people around the world."
Mandela went on to serve as South Africa's first black president in 1994.
"I am the product of Africa and her long cherished dream of a rebirth that can now be realized so that all of her children may play in the sun," Mandela one said.
As president, Mandela concentrated on crime and the economy, the country's two major problems after nearly three years of democracy. Mandela remained in office for five years until overseeing a peaceful transfer of power to a handpicked successor.
"Nelson Mandela was the towering moral giant of the 20th and 21st centuries. We will not see the likes of Madiba again for a long, long time," CNN's Christiane Amanpour wrote on her Facebook page.
"I will never forget my friend Madiba," President Bill Clinton tweeted.
